OPENINGS:  It was a bleak Memorial Day weekend at the box office, the worst in decades.  FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (Warners) limped to a victory for Friday-Sunday with $25.5M, but it may well tumble to 2nd place once the Monday holiday numbers are tallied.  Tellingly, Warners refused to so much as issue a […]

>Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax joins the worldwide box office chart this week, already ranked #7 out of 45 films released the last three months, but that ranking is based on a current zero tally of overseas receipts.   Based on recent animated films, we would expect The Lorax to gross somewhat more than its domestic […]

>Despite a downgraded estimated domestic total, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 expanded its international gross to date to come very close to the billion dollar mark.  Transformers: Dark of the Moon is starting to top out in its overseas gross — the worldwide gross will probably end up around $950 million.  Captain […]

Pixar’s Brave has a modest $13.5 million overseas to date, obviously with a big international potential as it rolls out around the world.  Pixar films generally have a healthy multiple over the domestic gross, which we are projecting to be $219 million based on the opening weekend.  An overseas target of $320 million seems reasonable […]

Big movers overseas this week include Django Unchained (now with $48 million overseas to date), Life of Pi (another $36 million overseas this past week to an astounding $393 million overseas and projected worldwide just under $500 million), and Les Miserables (up $35 million overseas this week to $151 million and a projected $301 million worldwide). The Hobbit and The Impossible follow close behind […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. Another very good week for Universal with the moderate domestic success of The Purge and the continued strong overseas performance of Fast & Furious 6.  The perennial also-ran studio (Universal) is now about $300 million away from #1 Disney for 2013 to date.  Universal is actually #1 for the year to date domestically but […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. The worldwide studio rankings for 2013 to date remain the same as last week’s. Reminder: the chart below has been reformatted and expanded to include a look at all releases from each studio, divided into three buckets: worldwide grosses of over $300 million, grosses between $100 million and $299 million, and films under […]

Updated worldwide box office chart for 2013 North American films.  Also, click here for a summary of worldwide performance by studio.